Review ~ Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya

I guess I’ll start off by saying this book was interesting and kept my attention enough to finish it. I found myself enjoying the tales of these people and their folklore and a lot of it was very familiar to me. The author did a great job creating the characters and I liked them. I even hated one of them. I loved the main character Antonio. So sweet and innocent and earnest.

Things that I didn’t like so much. Well, this was an audio book and the narrator dragged the story and did not really narrate correctly. Where pauses should have been made he rushed and where he should have kept going he paused. His voice was pleasant enough but I was annoyed by his timing.

Sometimes the writing felt/sounded juvenile. Not that I’m an expert or anything, but I noticed a lot of … he said annoyingly, she said excitedly, etc. Too many of those LY adverbs. I usually don’t critique the actual writing, but there were times the story dragged or maybe it was the narrator’s fault but it allowed me to concentrate on the writing instead of the story itself. When the story sweeps me up and carries me along, I don’t really pay attention to the mechanics of it all. That didn’t happen so much here.

The last thing was the heavy religious theme that ran through was so odd to me at times because of the age of Antonio. He was so young and already coming up with such intense questions. I understand that religion was a main part of the story and Antonio’s struggle with it, but I think at times it was too much. A lot of Catholic preaching during certain parts.

Otherwise, I think I would recommend it for those that do not mind my complaints above. The story itself was good and Antonio’s love for Ultima was so grand that I like to think that was the whole story.